Im doing what I do as a mom and thats to provide for my children and back them in everything they do, Lisa Sykes said. To report about any issues in our articles, please feel free toContact Us. He listens. One team has a player with two children born from two women three months apart. He relies on the motto, "More God," meaning that whenever he's faced with adversity, he'll trust God even more and remain the course. In this, Dawson's final year at Michigan State, My'Shawn has lived with him, the two of them bonding, sharing meals in a small off-campus apartment. I do a lot of things for my foundation before I was even in the NBA. Follow IndyStar Pacers beat writer James Boyd on Twitter:@RomeovilleKid. Its been an overflow. KJ doesn't know just yet how his grandfather died -- or even what death is, or that people disappear from the world in abrupt and unfair ways. His camp is having trouble getting them admitted into the road arenas. I was really on my own and traveling in Chicago for an hour each way each day. Breakups, forced relationships, long-distance relationships, fractures between families, money -- these are stresses that, comparatively, make basketball seem so simple. Thats my dream, but I know the odds of going to the NBA, so Ill just use basketball to get as far as I can.. Like Sykes, Dawson's been a father since he was a junior in high school. It's a dimension some critics didn't realize when they were all too eager to bemoan Dawson's performance in MSU's loss last Sunday at Wisconsin, wherein Dawson had four points and two rebounds. "I can finally say I made it," Sykes said. "It's always been this way, really, but off the record, it's demographics, number one, and popularity of basketball players today," one coach said. Sykes went scoreless in his NBA debut against Charlotte on Dec. 29 and twodays later totaledtwo pointsagainst his hometown Bulls. Basketballer Keifer Sykes is Marshall High' star point guard, Chi-Town follows his ambitions to make it in the NBA while loss, injury, and violence back home in Chicago punctuate his journey. On Dec. 7, 2013, Wisconsin Green-Bay hosted and upset Virginia behind a stellar performance from Sykes. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. I want the kid around. It's about mom just as much as dad. No one taught Branden Dawson how to be a father. "She's the key to being married, to being a dad. The big thing with me is, I want Keifer to be a good father first. On August 3, 2019, Sykes signed with the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association. Sykes' son represents an overlooked and under-discussed fact of life for so many college athletes: fatherhood. After taking a trip down memory lane at Marshall, Sykes headed to Proviso East, the alma mater of his friend and Mavericks guard Sterling Brown, to host a one-day basketball league and another coat drive the two pros organized together. On February 26, 2015, playing in his hometown of Chicago, Sykes scored a career-high 36 points against UIC to surpass the 2,000-point mark for his career. "I immediately fell in love with her.". "As soon as I could see her a little bit, I was really protective of her, just because she's so innocent and so helpless," Johnson said. Sykes right-hand man, Rashad McKinnie, who helps run Sykes' Free10 Foundation calls Sykes bond with the youth in the Chicagoland area the The Keifer Effect. No matter where Sykes career has taken him from starring at Marshall High School to becoming a Korean Basketball League All-Star to earning a guaranteed contract from the Pacers hes always carved out time to return to his old stomping grounds. Sykes confirmed that another documentary about his life is on the way, and itll include another milestone from his first NBA season: A jersey swap with his former high school and college teammate, Alfonzo McKinnie (a distant cousin of the aforementioned Rashad McKinnie). The Pacers had Sykes and Wanamaker in training camp and kept the veteran Wanamaker when the season began. She lives more than 250 miles away, in Iowa, with her mother. These are the guys helping Dawson, watching the little one when he's away, driving My'Shawn to and from pre-K school sessions. When James passed away, it was hard on everybody, but something definitely clicked in Keifer, Wardle said. So I was processing it, and then I didnt know what to do. Having not yet committed to Michigan State, the stress of choosing a college only added to Dawson's ongoing personal strain. Sykes, who went undrafted in 2015, signed a two-year contract with the Pacers last month after a strong season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the NBA G League. *" Chi-Town " is a well-known reference to the city of Chicago, home of the Chicago Bulls with one of the unquestionably all-time greats of basketball, Michael . The two helped Marshall finish third in the Class 3A Illinois high school boys basketball state tournament in 2010, and 12 years later they were on opposing sides of an NBA game for the first time when Sykes and the Pacers hosted McKinnie and their hometown Bulls on Feb 4. I've heard a couple of times him screaming, 'Go, Daddy!' These are really childhood dreams we turned into reality for real, and I think thats the most exciting part. Having seen each other from afar in previous years, they met again, of all places, in an ER when she was 23. Hes gonna have the film footage, and its the continuation of truly one of the amazing stories in sport.. He later joined the San Antonio Spurs on 28 September 2015. One of those players already had a child, and the other had one on the way. He wasn't. [7] Sykes and 7ft 1in (2.16m) standout player Alec Brown led the Phoenix to a 245 regular season record and finished first in the Horizon League. Sykes, 21, just won his second straight Horizon League Player of the Year honor. So they bring the other (American) player in and start working him out so they can be ready and they tell you whatever games you have that week, and at the end of the week they decide to keep you or cut you. "I walk in the door, my parents are sitting at the table. The game-winner capped. You can practically hear the smile through the phone as Gathers, who was wearing scrubs that didn't fit his 6-8, 275-pound frame, tells the story. Gathers, who's likely to return for his senior season, said his household of three is living off $15,000 per year. How much does Keifer Sykes weigh? With Keifer Sykes. I met with director Nick Budabin and star Keifer Sykes, of the new documentary Chi-Town (which I also reviewed), on Monday, March 12, at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival.The film, which follows Sykes from the end of his high-school basketball career through the end of college, and just beyond, is like a sequel, of sorts, to the great Steve James' 1994 Hoop Dreams. He was just a really good man. They're cautionary stories but uplifting ones, too. I gowith different guys. To him, these are secondary anecdotes. When I was like, Oh, Im small, he was like, Nah, you can go to the NBA. However, he regularlymentions his children during interviewsand posts pictures of them on his social media handles. Moments after making the million-dollar shot, it was reported by multiple outlets that Sykes signed with the Pacers, bookending a truly remarkable day. My own agents telling me that I'm not gonna play in the NBA. You could be winning and they still try to nitpick at something. I dont know why they wouldnt allow this story to be continued in as much detail as possible. Sykes, a former point guard for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, sunk a pull-up three to give Boeheim's Army a 69-67 win over Team 23 in Tuesday's TBT championship. Sykes is from the South Side of Chicago, so he was originally supposed to attend Hyde Park Academy, Simeon or St. Rita, which have all produced pro players. (Without prompt, Sykes publicly defended his coach throughout the ordeal.). written on it in white letters, didnt hesitate before handing the kid his phone and obliging. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? Mississippi State is the prime example. That's money which now goes toward feeding their baby boy, Ricardo Darnell Gathers Jr., who came into the world at 4:53 a.m. on June 13, 2014. Its a real heros journey.. Another team lost a player in the middle of the night, without warning, because he was given an ultimatum by the child's mother. Hows your team doing? he asked another. "I didn't expect much out of basketball," Sykes said. "Those of us that know his story, (it's) very compelling, and this is a culmination of a lot of work and a big dream.". The plan is for mother and child to pack up and go with. Earlier that day, Sykes was at Marshall High School in Chicago, his alma mater, about a 25-minute drive from Proviso East, giving away coats and hope. Thats the heros journey, Sykes said. We do a lot of things to help his daughter because as a single mom . Weve actually talked about (that game) once or twice, and I brought it up just to see if he remembered it, Brogdon said. He's going beyond the expectations of being there for his son. "I was a freshman, already on the court, and trying to run a team, trying to learn, and learning how to be a dad and learn to be a college student," Sykes said. And these (five games) that he's played, he's played tremendously. In college, Keifer Sykes wrote RIP DAD on his socks, and if there's room, he'll write that same message on his sneakers so his father is always with him on the court. The 28-year-old doesnt remember the last conversation he had with his dad because he never expected it to be the final one. My'Shawn's mother lives back in Indiana; it was her idea to have father and child live together this season, in part because she's working night shifts at a Speedway to save money and find some quiet that was lost during the early years of My'Shawn's life. Where was Keifer Sykes born? Dozens of programs were contacted for this story and asked if they had a player on their roster who was a father or a father-to-be. Simple things, like sleeping patterns. Sykes said his indomitable spirit was instilled in him by his father, who put him in school a year early because he could handle it. And whenever Sykes thought he was too young or too small, his father would tell him not to give up. [18] In his rookie season with Austin, including the playoffs, Sykes averaged 13.1 points, 3.3 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 0.84 steals while shooting 45.9% from the field and 77.4% from the free throw line, and also recording a plus/minus of +196. Despite all of those who tried to put a ceiling on his career as hetraveledthe world,there was always at least one person back home reminding Sykes to shoot for the stars: his mom, Lisa. [8] In a 6966 loss to Wisconsin, Sykes scored 32 points, including a highlight dunk in the first possession of the game. They have a hierarchy. "I can't wait to get the list of all the players they had ranked ahead of me. [28], On August 5, 2021, Sykes signed a contract with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). "All the different agents that I went through. Keifer Sykes' 3-pointer wins TBT for Boeheim's Army. We were all riding every possession and rooting for him, high-fiving each other whenever he dropped in another 3, Mitchell said. And like Dawson and Sykes, he's a pro prospect. The 21-year-old Bears power forward, a second cousin to the late Hank Gathers (who died 25 years to the day of this story's publishing), married his longtime girlfriend on June 10, 2013. In Wardle's eyes -- and having spoken to many coaches on this, many expressed similar sentiment -- here was a kid who was playing for something. He was even more so on a mission than he was before.. You go to South Korea and thats a whole different culture, Sykes said. The sacrifices she made, man. Really, he worried about leaving his son, how KJ would be without him, and not so much about what the schools thought of his situation or the backstory on his complicated family structure with a troupe of half-siblings. At one point, a boy asked the Indiana Pacers guard to follow him on Instagram. 'You don't know who this is?'". I told them, 'Don't have any babies. On July 21, 2016, he was selected by Anyang KGC in the second round of the 2016 KBL draft.[20]. . Sykes went on to become a three-time First-Team All-Horizon League honoree and two-time Horizon League Player of the Year, solidifying himself as one of the best players in Wisconsin-Green Bay history. He is at Green Bay because that staff impressed his father. "And when the baby came out, man, it was so cool to be part of that atmosphere," Freeman said. And I think we were able to give him that. Just to see him get that opportunity and be out here playing, Im so excited for him. pic.twitter.com/iZU0TTtaHa, James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) January 15, 2022. Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 27 years old? I was afraid to tell my mom.". Moreover, Sykes graduated from there with a degree in Communications. At James Sykes' urging, and Keifer's own interest in ending the courtship of so many other coaching staffs, he committed fairly early as a junior. [4], From his freshman year in 201112, Sykes was immediately inserted into the Phoenix starting lineup, and was also the youngest player in the nation, let alone youngest starter. I see my daughter come out to the world.". Sykes keeps in touch with all of them but he hasn't seen Kristie and Antawn in years. 1:08; See All. Pictured below, there he is in the hospital with his girlfriend, Kylee, and his baby girl, Maddox, born three weeks ago -- smack dab in the middle of the season. The former University of Wisconsin-Green Bay star . Keifer Sykes was a two-time Horizon League Player of the Year at Green Bay. They last shared space together in 2012 -- at Keifer's father's funeral. Sykes, a self-described daddy's boy, wasn't worried that being a father might hurt his chances in recruitment. The undersized guard scored a career- and team-high22 points Tuesday against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden and went toe-to-toe Wednesday with Nets superstar Kyrie Irving, who made his season debut in Indianapolis. I forgot to even call my mom. Sykes could match upagainst his "best friend" for the first time in the NBA when Indiana hosts Chicago on Feb. 4. Undrafted out of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2015, Sykes went on to play with the Austin Spurs - the San Antonio Spurs' NBA G-League affiliate - for his first professional season . Nine children from five mothers and two fathers. They went through predraft workouts together in 2015.Thats where my respect (for him) came from. We had nothing. pic.twitter.com/4JC9VJNSpW, James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) January 7, 2022, "Everything that she did for us, losing my dad, taking care of everybody she deserves this more than anybody, Keifer Sykes said. Keifer Sykes was born in Chicago, Illinois. 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